Mission life: THE KUKMIN DAILY

First Mission United Korea Forum: Clergy in Reunification Ministries Meet on NK Mission

The Mission United Korea Forum, held at University of the Nations Kona, Hawaii, United States, for four days from August 28 to 31, was significant in that it attempted a strategic approach to the Korean church’s existing mission works for North Korea. Particularly because the forum was a gathering of hearts and brains of persons working with love for the North, including ministers in Korea, the Korean diaspora, and leaders of world mission organizations, church circles are looking forward to the future path of this united effort.

Organized by the Korea World Mission Association (president: Hwang Seong-ju), the forum was composed of keynote lectures, group workshops, and roundtable discussions on various themes including necessary strategies and a roadmap towards reunification, education to nurture the reunification generation, ministry preparing for the reunification age, methods to foster reunification leaders, and reunification mission of the overseas Korean diaspora.

One fruit of the forum was its decision to form a “reunification and mission strategy council” within KWMA, connecting mission circles and church circles to develop reunification and mission strategies and a roadmap. The Korean church has united again in the present crisis, just as the North Korean nuclear threat in the mid-1990s brought the Korean church’s ecumenical bodies, major denominations, and activists together every week to discuss the reunification mission.

*Rev. Loren Cunningham speaks at the forum. (Rev. Moses Kim on the left)

Youth With A Mission (YWAM) founder Rev. Loren Cunningham also joined the forum on August 28, and advised, in an interview with Kukmin Daily, “For the reunification of the Korean peninsula, the Korean churches must undergo a great spiritual reawakening, first of all realizing union among themselves.”

Rev. Cunningham explained, “When people are attacked by the enemy, their faith is always tested. Spiritually, this is now the case with Korea. On the other hand, the good news is that new revival comes through great reawakening of the spirit. At the time of the 1907 Pyongyang Revival, God’s judgment was revealed to the hearts of a few missionaries. When they repented, a great spiritual awakening spread throughout the Korean peninsula, and it was followed by surprising revival.”